15.32. Accessing the Trained Network from Outside Excel

You can get NeuralTools predictions by having your non-Excel application communicate with Excel, utilizing the Live Prediction feature (requires NeuralTools Industrial Edition). Here's how:

1. In Excel, train and test a neural net, and store that net in a workbook. Let's call it PredictionWorkbook.xls.

2. PredictionWorkbook.xls will contain a Live Prediction cell; the value of that cell will change automatically as soon as input/independent values change.

3. When the non-Excel custom application wants to get a prediction, it starts Excel, opens NeuralTools.xla and opens PredictionWorkbook.xls (all of which is done by code and doesn't need to be visible on the screen).

4. Using Excel API, the custom application writes input/independent values into appropriate cells in PredictionWorkbook.xls, and reads the prediction from the Live Prediction cell.

There's also a NeuralTools Excel Developer Kit beginning with NeuralTools 5.5. Using that, you could trigger the Predict command from code (for new independent data), without a need for Live Prediction. If you want predictions outside of Excel, your non-Excel application would need to communicate with the copy of Excel that is running NeuralTools.